The Peanuts Gang is Getting New Life Thanks to Apple

Posted on December 14, 2018

The Peanuts gang is ready for some new adventures.

Apple has struck a deal with DHX Media to produce new series, specials and shorts based on the beloved characters from the animated world created by Charles M. Schulz, a source familiar with the deal tells CNN.

Apple has yet to announce the name of its official television service, the cost of its content or details on how it will be accessed, even as it builds a trove of upcoming projects.

As part of the deal, DHX, which co-owns the world of Peanuts along with Sony Music Entertainment and the Schulz family, will create short-form STEM-related content for Apple. (Think astronaut Snoopy.)

In November 2017, Peanuts Worldwide and NASA announced plans to collaborate in hopes of encouraging the next generation to enter the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

The Peanuts comics were first published in 1950. Over the past more than 60 years, the beloved beagle Snoopy and the entire cast of characters have become pop culture icons, and the television specials hallmarks of the holidays.

The deal with DHX is a major get for Apple in the children-geared programming space.

Competitor Amazon has seen success in investing in kids programming in recent years, with some Emmy-winners on its roster. In 2015, HBO put a “Sesame Street”-shaped feather in its hat with a five-year deal that gave the premium cable network not only new episodes but 150 archived episodes.

The deal, while criticized by some, was a financial lifeline to the Sesame Workshop.